After the Show: Part One

AggMan Staff | Published on December 1, 2007

Creative options for spending more
time than money while taking a break from booths and educational
seminars.

by Tina Grady Barbaccia, Senior
Editor

After a long day of attending
seminars and walking the massive ConExpo-Con/Agg show floor visiting
numerous booths, a little off-the-job downtime is in order. But if
you’ve already blown your budget, need some places that are family
friendly, or just want some time away from the constant buzz and ringing
of the casinos, Las Vegas offers many alternatives to gambling both on
and off the strip. Here are just a few of the numerous options.

Guggenheim Heritage Museum

Even Las Vegas has culture that
doesn’t include just laying your money on the table, only to see the
pile quickly disappear. At the Venetian, the Guggenheim Heritage Museum
boasts culture straight from one of the highly revered museums in New
York City. This museum exhibits original art from the permanent
collections of the NYC Guggenheim as well as the Hermitage in St.
Petersburg, Russia, and the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, Austria. If you
haven’t been to the museum in the last six to nine months, the displays
are probably different, as the museum changes out the art after this
time frame. During ConExpo-Con/Agg, the “Modern Masters from the
Guggenheim Collection” exhibit will be open. (It runs from July 27, 2007
through April 27, 2008.) The museum is open every day from 9:30 a.m. to
8:30 p.m. Admission is $19.50 for adults, $15 for seniors and Nevada
residents, $12.50 for students, and $9.50 for children ages 6 to 12.
Children under age 6 are free.

Located at the Flamingo Hotel &
Casino near the intersection of the Strip and Flamingo Road, a 15-acre
park area behind the Flamingo Las Vegas boasts a flock of live Chilean
flamingos as well as ponds of catfish, Japanese koi (giant goldfish),
and turtles. Penguins, swans, and some other rare birds also populate
the grounds that are surrounded by waterfalls, streams, and lush
foliage. The park is open 24/7 and is free.

Located in the Luxor Hotel &
Casino, the King Tut Museum features what the museum says are authentic
reproductions of the famous tomb of King Tutankhamun discovered on Nov.
22, 1922, by Howard Carter.

A 15-minute, self-guided audio tour features
hundreds of reproductions from King Tut’s tomb, including the famous
guardian statues, the boy king’s sarcophagus, and various statues,
vases, beds, baskets, and pottery. According to the Luxor, the
measurements of each room in the museum are precisely measured and each
artifact is meticulously positioned according to the records maintained
by the Carter expedition. Tickets are $9.99 per person. The museum is
open every day from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m.

Located at the Mirage, the garden
features white tigers, white lions, and leopards. The famed Siegfried &
Roy duo began a breeding program in the early 1980s with the Zoological
Society of Cincinnati with two striped white tigers and a snow-white
cub, according to a report about the exhibit onwww.Vegas.com/attractions . Now, there are close to 40. In 1995, the show
partners collaborated with South Africa’s JohannesburgZoological
Gardens to help repopulate white lions; there were fewer than 10 at the
time, but now 23 are under living in the garden, according to the
report. In addition to white tigers and lions, a black panther, a snow
leopard, and an Asian and an African leopard also call this habitat
their home.

The 2.5-million-gallon Dolphin
Habitat serves as both a research facility and a vehicle to increase
public awareness about dolphins. The facility includes a 22-foot-deep
viewing tank and has both indoor and outdoor viewing areas. Seven
Atlantic bottlenose dolphins live at the observation center. None of the
dolphins living in the habitat were taken from the wild — all were
either born at the facility or relocated from other marine centers,
according to www.Vegas.com/attractions . Both the garden and
the dolphin habitat are open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5:30
p.m., and Saturday and Sunday (including holidays) from 10 a.m. to 5:30
p.m. Admission costs $15 for adults, $10 for children, and children
under 3 years old are free. The last admissions are sold 30 minutes
before the facility closes.

With 125,000 square feet of
showroom space and more than 250 automobiles ranging from classic and
exotic to racing and celebrity cars, The Auto Collections at the
Imperial Palace is claimed to be the world’s largest and finest classic
car showroom. Some of the rare automobiles include historic vehicles
such as a 1932 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Figoni et Falaschi
Pillarless Berline, several Duesenbergs, and a 1928 Mercedes-Benz S
Tourer, which is valued at more than $4 million. Every vehicle in the
collection is in working order and all are available for purchase. The
museum is located on the Imperial Palace’s fifth floor parking facility
and is open from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily. Admission is $6.95 for
each adult, $3 for seniors and children ages 3 to 12. Children less than
age 3 are admitted free. Free passes are also available at the museum
Web site atwww.autocollections.com/index.cfm?action=free&tab=free .

Just as everything in Las Vegas is
larger than life, so must be the movies. On a large screen where
everything seems to pop out at you, the Luxor Hotel and Casino boasts
what it says is Las Vegas’ first IMAX Theater with 2-D and 3-D
technology. The theater is open from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m. every day.